CIO Conferences

Despite the disruption caused by pandemic, recession and social upheaval, boards of directors have made the acceleration of digital business their top priority.

Disruptions caused by the pandemic have forced organizations to implement new operating models to accommodate near-term challenges such as work from home and facility closures. The big question now is which changes are lasting and which are temporary. There is a high level of uncertainty.

Technology competencies in non-IT workers are increasing, creating new opportunities to co-create solutions that address needs and capture new opportunities. It is time for IT to embrace this trend.

Understanding business priorities and applying value disciplines to inform management and execution are foundational to the transition to digital business.

Ecosystem participation is a key opportunity and that can take different forms — providing or co-creating an ecosystem and selling or buying through one. An ecosystem creates value by supporting business models that enable participants to achieve performance superior to businesses that operate independently. Likewise, ecosystems enable public-sector agencies to gain efficiency dividends and deliver a superior citizen experience.

The magnitude and velocity of the growth of the pandemic, recession and social upheaval have surpassed the ability of industrial-era institutions and organizations to meet the challenges placed in front of them. Executives will find the need to vastly improve their own company’s ability to respond to these types of exponential threats.

Pandemic response has accelerated digital business, but the changes in many organizations have been reactive and unplanned. It is time for IT leaders to take a step back and reevaluate strategic plans and directions.

Market dynamics are shifting significantly as enterprises face challenges serving core constituencies such as students, patients, citizens and customers. IT must play a key role in addressing these challenges. The effectiveness and relevance of many institutions and enterprises is now dependent on IT. The time to change is now. Waiting until “things get better” or “this blows over” is not a good tactic.

Perhaps the biggest mistake organizations make regarding business transformation is to assume the effort is all about technology, when actually it is about culture and business. There is a growing realization among our clients that digital business transformation is more than a matter of technology. It must entail business model transformation as well. It can be difficult for CIOs to amass support for this level of change. They need to partner with executives to create a shared vision for transformation.

Many organizations, challenged by the sheer magnitude of a transformation, operate incrementally to optimize their business, which can yield helpful and even significant short-term results. There are a lot of lessons to learn from organizations that have embarked on transformation initiatives, even if they are not in your industry.

Many companies are investing their attention to digitally improving their internal operations to reduce their operating costs with new designs of their business. This includes asset-intensive industries like mining and utilities.

One of the trends we are observing is the creation of alternative structures to pursue digital business transformation. This frees up part of the organization to push the boundaries on how digital business shifts markets and enables new value propositions.

Also, there are transformations to core operations and business processes that need to happen. Again, productive internal partnerships with leaders beyond IT is critical.